We have chosen to present a few cases on this web site. Please note that we have more reference cases. If there are some areas you are searching for and don´t find within our field of expertise, please contact us.

Client: Manufacturing company with over 48000 employees around the globe and turnover 76 billion SEK, based in the Nordic countries.

Challenge: The agreement was highly complex and internally very sensitive, as it covered the complete IT-organisation, global interactions, and high contract value. This meant it was among the largest single outsourcing agreements made during 2011. The scope included infrastructure services, application maintenance, service desk and projects, and the time line was very challenging 9 months.

Opticos Approach: Reporting to the CIO and the IT-Management team, Opticos had complete responsibility for designing, re-structuring, negotiating and establishing the agreement, including the re-designing of the retained organisation. Opticos carried out an end-to-end outsourcing to obtain a new delivery model, offshore services, and service-level definition. Opticos also ensured a smooth transition from the current mode of operation to the future mode.

Impact: The client completed the outsourcing process within the agreed timelines and successfully introduced a new delivery model. Offshoring brought in major cost reduction and automation within the application and the infrastructure landscape. Also, the IT management was able to handle more complex demands.

Have you a similar situation in your company, Contact us at info@opticos.se

#2 Successful Sourcing Strategy

The development of a multi-sourcing solution for a logistics company in the Nordic region.

Client: A logistic company with over 40 billion SEK turnover and 35000 employees.

Challenge: The company had just signed a new outsourcing agreement for application operation and maintenance with one supplier. The next step was to source all Application development from the same supplier. However, at the most critical moment it turned out that the supplier could not deliver the volumes required. What could be done? The CIO ordered a review and a new sourcing strategy.

Opticos Approach: We developed and firmly anchored a sourcing strategy for the company's Application development unit, which agreement was worth approximately 500MSEK/year. The assignment was completed in less than 6 months, even though TUPE legislation was involved, thus making the assignment highly sensitive, (TUPE - Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment). The company obtained an innovative and effective sourcing strategy for Application Development & Projects, and a multi-sourcing environment with clear internal control.

Impact: The company now had a full, transparent overview and control of their vendors, eliminated the risk of unexpected cost and wrong service levels, and ensured a year-on-year efficiency improvement. The Application development unit was empowered to handle situation speedily, using clear decision-making process.

Have you a similar situation in your company, Contact us at info@opticos.se

#3 Implementation of Contract Management

Implementation of Contract Management in a recently outsourced organization.

Client: A logistic company which delivers every year over 140 million packages in the Nordic countries.

Challenge: The assignment was highly complex due to multiple commercial relations in the recently outsourced organisation. A lot of cross-border coordination and communication was required, which took up too much management time. The processes and way of working were not common among countries. This required the introduction of a uniform way of working across the organisation and across countries, which increased the challenges.

Opticos Approach: Opticos was assigned as a contract management and a commercial specialist during the implementation of the new outsourcing agreement in Sweden and Denmark. The assignment included development and implementation of training for the organisation in cooperation with the outsourcing suppliers.

Impact: The client could complete the implementation of the contract-management function within 12 months. The organization now has a unified way of working across borders as processes are harmonised in cooperation with the suppliers. A strong governance model was introduced. The client also developed a forum for the anchoring of commercial decisions and for the training of over a hundred employees in Sweden and Denmark.

Have you a similar situation in your company, Contact us at info@opticos.se

#4 Unified Contract Management Platform

Development of a unified platform and process for contract management & administration.

Client: A Swedish company in the healthcare industry with over 30 billion SEK turnover and 15000 employees around the world.

Challenge: The client had no standard process for contract management. The management team and the CIO needed urgently to establish a standard way of categorizing contracts across the organisation to have a better overview of IT-related contract. Change Management and stakeholder within the IT department and the other company department were among the biggest obstacle that needed to be overcome. Assignment was highly complex due to multiple commercial relations in the recently outsourced organisation. A lot of cross-border coordination and communication was required, which took up too much management time. The process and way of working were not common among countries. This required introduction of a uniform way of working across the organisation and across countries, which increased the challenges.

Opticos Approach: The assignment was to develop a uniform platform and process for IT-contract management and administration. The objective was to have transparency and clarity regarding all IT contracts. The solution was successfully delivered at a fixed price within three months.

Impact: The company obtained a standard contract management and administration process, which allowed it to give an awareness and control of all its IT contracts. The involved management team and the CIO achieved considerably more business control.

Have you a similar situation in your company, Contact us at info@opticos.se

#5 Restructured Procurement of Consultants

From slow bureaucratic procurement to swift and efficient.

Client: A Swedish company with over 19 billion turnover and a global presence in the manufacturing industry.

Challenge: The procurement covered 4 different areas within the R&D department and reorganised approximately 1500 consultants. The R&D organization had a highly inefficient usage of consultants which slowed the company's ability to innovate. Among other issues, the Purchasing and HR departments had long, administrative processes that kept consultants in "hibernation" and stopped them from using resources when needed quickly. The preference for certain suppliers was protected, based in good relations rather than best performance, and the rates in general were not competitive. A new procurement strategy was just ready to launch when the financial crisis of 2008 hit. The focus changed because if the crisis and there was a call to reduce the number of consultant by 60% and to cut their rates.

Opticos Approach: The assignment required 12 months and demanded difficult negotiations within and outside the organisation, from senior management to unit level, enabling delivery volumes to be consolidated and savings to be secured Opticos strengthening of the supplier base demanded huge internal input to anchor a new sourcing strategy that focused in the most effective suppliers, who truly strived to meet the company needs during the down-turn. Furthermore, we anchored the new strategy with the R&D department, making sure they would profit fully from all the commercial benefits derived from the new setup.

Impact: The company's R&D department became capable of innovating at a much faster pace, with flexibility, and in control of its resources. The organisation gained efficiency, retained 600 consultants, achieved important cost savings, and converted consultants into suppliers through new and improved agreements.

Have you a similar situation in your company, Contact us at info@opticos.se

#6 From random purchasing to controlled procurement

Transformation from unplanned services to controlled procurement of consultants.

Client: A Swedish company with over 29000 employees and a global presence in the manufacturing industry.

Challenge: Our client formed a new IT-organisation that needed to increase its knowledge of company's application portfolio. The existing setup was based on a large and confusing number of service agreements, delivered as "black boxes", in many cases made between other departments and the suppliers directly, meaning the IT organization had no insight and a very low level of knowledge of these agreements. The suppliers and the internal departments involved had more than "good" relationship and were therefore reluctant to change.

Opticos Approach: Our assignment was to transform a large number of these agreements into consultant's contracts to be directly managed by the IT department. In addition to these changes, a new consultant supplier was sourced, the purpose of which was to increase competition among the existing application-maintenance suppliers and to be able to move less senior and therefore less costly resources into the application maintenance team. Another aim was to create the right conditions for future outsourcing of application-maintenance. During the new setup, the organization could acquire knowledge of the applications, create documentation, and make the right preparations for a possible future outsourcing. The assignment took eight months and an internal framework for call-off for consultants was introduced.

Impact: The organisation acquired greater flexibility in terms of resource allocation within the different application teams and enables the IT department to learn more about the applications. They turned more efficient as they as there was a cost reduction of 15%. An additional effect was that they had better control and transparency over their resources and eliminated unnecessary supplier layers and mark-up.

Have you a similar situation in your company, Contact us at info@opticos.se